DN - Vertigo

“Suck it up, Dreadnought,” shouts Calamity from far down the hall.

“Go ahead and blow on it—gently, now!” says Codex.

I do. There’s a flash, a bang, and I slam twenty feet across the room, go spanging off a metal guardrail and spin hard into a bookcase. As a half-ton of paper and ink rains down on me, I can’t stop giggling. My face is numb yet somehow burning, and even behind closed eyes the explosion was so bright it hurt to see.

All right, status check:

Eyes? Check.

Pat my face for wounds—shit, that stings!

No blood on my glove though.

Lattice is good. Body is good. I’m good.

Try again, Graywytch.

“Dreadnought, talk to me!” shouts Calamity.

“I’m up! I’m up,” I say as I climb to my feet. The ground wobbles out from beneath me, and I collapse across the aisle, catching myself on a guardrail. “Uh, gimme a moment.”

Clutching at the lattice should steady me, but instead gives me the most bizarre frisson of vertigo as the world seems to spin.

The others are coming into the library now. Calamity jogs around two sides of a square to get to me as I peel myself off the rail.

“You all right, partner?”

“Hold on, something’s wrong with my balance.”

“You need to evac?”

“I’ll be fine once I find something expensive to vomit on.”

Walking is an adventure, and flying is out of the question. With an arm under my shoulder, Calamity helps me make my way to the others. I was really hoping I’d stop being the one who needed to be carried through an op, but on the other hand, this does mean I get to lean up against Calamity as much as I want, so really we’re coming out even here.

- Sovereign, Chapter 21